Patch 5.2 - PvP UI Updated
Patch 5.2 updates the PvP UI with a larger and easier to use dialogue, including a different way to blacklist battlegrounds.

Patch 5.2 Legendary Quests Updated
A recent PTR build updated the description of many of the legendary quests. Check out the quest pages to read the entire description for each quest, especially A Reckoning!

The new additions show that you need to unlock several phases of the War Effort, as well as kill the new world boss, Storm Lord Nalak.

Contact Wrathion once your faction is ready to make its move. [To Be Continued in Patch 5.3...]

Lunar Festival 2013
There aren't really any significant changes to Lunar Festival this year, just keep in mind that you can grab the other faction's pet by making a character on that faction or purchasing it from the AH.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ClassesHow much have you been hearing about the 400+ ilvl gear on 80's? Will this be fixed soon? Or intended to be??
A lot, yes and no. (Source)

I know Hit & Run is DOA, but are you guys at all surprised by the amount of positive reaction we saw from some PTR players?
Honestly, yes. The targeting reticule was a deal-breaker for many of our internal folks. (Source)really, the targetting reticule was the killer? Maybe we can talk about HLeap
Heroic Leap played into the decision. We like the ability (and so do many warriors) but for some the reticule is a hard sell. (Source)

Any plans to still balance&nerf healer mana in 5.2? Pallys and Discs hardly go OOM anymore making spirit a less valuable stat.
We see paladins go OOM. Disc avoids it with Rapture games that aren't available in 5.2. (Source)What about resto druids? Mages? They never oom
Mages aren't designed to OOM (except Arcane). Resto druids are. (Source)

What do you think is the reason(s) that vast majority of the warrior population plays arms in pvp compared to fury?
Big hits > many hits in PvP. Enrage can be dispelled. (Source)so, rogues are many hits class, change them plz
If the damage of all melee has about the same "cadence" doesn't that hurt class diversity? Rerolling should be exciting. (Source)

Is the Vengeance hotfix permanent? Or just until you fix the recalc bugs?
The intent was for it to be permanent. Is there a reason you need Vengeance to be that high? (Source)

You've said WoW cannot support an infinite number of classes.With DK and now Monks added will we ever see a Demon Hunter class
Is there enough design space there not occupied by DK, warlock, hunter, warrior? (Source)

10/5% is indeed unacceptable. 1% delta is fine. And need to switch specs for single vs. multi-target encounters is same bs.
I suspect 1% is unachievable on actual diverse encounters so long as specs use different buttons. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)DK 4 piece 25 sec addition to Army of the dead, seems odd?
We realize it's a tough sell, but we have some ideas to make the set bonus more attractive. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)I think there are very few ferals out there who actually wanted this monotone non-shifting gameplay.
That one is really tough. Some druids like the shifting aspect of the class, other say "No, I am a cat. Period." (Source)

The wrath spell for the treeants for Force of Nature isn't scaling with solar eclipse.
That is intentional. (Source)

Resto Druids got hurt so bad with the increased Battle Fatigue. Troubling you still think them on par with RS/Pala. Explain?
If everyone's healing goes down by the same percentage, how does one healer get hurt more? Relative healing should stay the same. (Source)When healing was higher it let the druid hot then do other things like cyclone/pounce. Now he has to hardcast more.
But if the shaman's heals are 30% smaller too, why do they not have to heal more as well? (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)If you want mages to play the spec they want. Why have the devs made fire mage so poor on single target dps? any changes inc?
All the raiding mages were Fire BC Fire was best in every situation. Now we see more Frost and Arcane, but still lots of Fire. (Source)the Player like to play Fire, but why you dont want it, you nerfed it to the ground on singelataget?
Last I looked, Fire is 90 to 100K on a single target fight like Feng. That's to the ground these days? (Source)try looking at the average players not the top raiders. avg player is at 40-60
And isn't Arcane around there as well? Or maybe a better question: what is not to the ground for normal players? (Source)http://t.co/lEbr21Sy ist this not the ground?
Stack ranks are deceptive. Try this: compare just Fire and Arcane. Now compare sample size and standard deviation. (Source)

arcane is around there frost Im seeing still low overall 30 - 43 I track this to lack of FoF proc chance on bosses. look into?
Hard to say for Frost. Sample size is low, and my guess is most raiding mages are Fire/Arcane. (Source)

Fun? Not sure. Interesting? B/C scorch adds a bit more decision making to rotation.
Can you explain the decision? Aren't you just fishing for Missiles procs while sitting on 6 stacks? (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Have you ever considered that not many people roll monk because of the burdens of keeping up an alt or levelling one
Yeah that is certainly an issue. When I say monks are low in PvP, that considers their already low population overall. (Source)

How do you feel mistweaver monks are in terms of raid utility compared to other healers? There isn't a goto reason to take one
I worry about this problem at the macro level. If all 6 healers had awesome utility, you still could not take them all. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)why did you take repentance, an iconic ret tool, and made it bad for rets and placed it in a awkward talent tier?
We wanted less instant CC (still do) and knew cast time would be hard sell for Ret, so we'd let them opt out of it. (Source)

I feel if you removed HoTR from Ret AoE DPS and replaced it with Divine Storm our AoE Rotation would feel better.
When we had Divine Storm in the "builder" role before, its damage was puny and Rets asked for it to hit harder. (Source)

Are you worried about Pr. T15 being all about SA's that weird things might result? Is pathing with them still a problem? 3Max?
We fixed a lot of bugs with Apparitions in 5.2. Had to do with bosses temp going immune in encounters. (Source)What about the 3 max apparitions>?
No cap to them in 5.2. (Source)

Why can't you just buff holy DPS to be within 5% of Shadow? Do you hate versatility that much?
Why would you be Shadow if you could heal and DPS competitively with one spec? (Source)

Could also be a case of dmg being too high, but Disc is too far behind before all that is factored in. Thanks for your time.
We would like to see more Disc priests. Just want to make the right changes and not break anything. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Why did you give 50 energy for rogues in tier bonus ? IMO it means OP for sub, 5+ amb. Do you think energy is a big problem ?
We were trying to give them more burst for PvP (ironically they needed it) but considering +30 instead. (Source)

On rogue "fun" levels.Imo theyfeel maintenancey.Keep up SnD,Rupture,Enven.Takes away the feel of the actual attacks you use
Maybe Slice and Dice should only be one spec? (Source)

Also, to reiterate, it's fine for Combat to be better at cleaving. We just want to tone it down so you can be e.g. Ass / Sub. (Source) Bring them up to par with combat not nerf rogues only viable cleave into the ground. Does this not register?
Rogues are doing well on almost every fight. The problem we're trying to solve is promoting diversity not giving out more DPS. (Source)So instead of giving rogues 3 legitimate choices when faced with a cleave heavy fight we get 3 mediocre choices. Great logic.
Why don't you tell me the DPS delta that defines legit vs. mediocre for you? (Source)

I'm talking about sub spec, the buff of sanguinary veins (16%==>20%) is not enough to be competitive. Hemorraghe need a buff
Hard to say. If you look at a fight like Feng, Sub isn't far behind even though the sample size is much smaller. (Source)you mean subtlety?
Yes, my bad. He said Sanguinary Vein buff. I heard Vitality buff. Both were intended to close the gap. (Source)

Will you compensate the loss from Blade Flurry (Combat rogues) somehow? There are still people who prefer combat over sub
We buffed Combat single target to make them more competitive with Assassination. (Source)since its damage is reduced so much will you be removing or reducing the energy generation penalty?
On Blade Flurry? Yes, perhaps. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Sorry for bringing up old question, but why is Sac in locks talent trees if we are to always use pets? I like Sac speccing
Locks are pet classes. It's fine for Sac to let you opt out of that, as long as not every lock takes Sac. (Source)Sac brought me back to my lock. Changes to aff kept me here. Hope doesn't go away. A % dmg nerf = ok. Playstyle nerf = not.
We're not talking about redesigning the talent -- just making sure we see warlocks take the others as well. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Warriors good in start of cata...then nerfed to the ground, anyone else see a pattern? GC you really need retire.
One data point is not a pattern. It's not even a line. (Source)its the same exact thing that happened in cata, how do you not see this?
Because warriors are still very well represented in PvP on live and we don't think the modest 5.2 changes will change that. (Source)Do you think the Warrior PvP nerfs have had long enough time to sink in and be properly reflected in PvP metrics?
Probably not. There seems to be a long lag for stuff like that. A successful team might not swap classes overnight. (Source)

Arms rotation on PTR feels good. Weak aoe though including Bladestorm. Mastery & haste still near useless, overall bad scaling
We have plans to make haste and mastery better for Arms and haste for Fury. Hopefully it works out. (Source)

Have you considered that most warriors think second wind should be standard, thats why everyone picks it/ignores all others?
Sometimes players like spells because they're fun and sometimes because they're powerful. Which do you think Second Wind is? (Source)How is a passive ability that only works at %life fun. I don't think it is super OP but everybody takes it.
I agree. It might be convenient and even powerful, but I don't see how it makes you excited to play your warrior. (Source)

Why doesn't warbringer dr with anything do you even care for your game?
I do care, and it DRs with Charge and Dragon Roar (and a couple other things). (Source)Y not remove the dmg from Shockwave (Arms & Fury specc only), only diff is tht shckwave has a longr stun?
We think the stun is the entire PvP balance problem. The damage is high, but it's the frequent stun that is hard to deal with. (Source)

Have u guys considered leavin shockwave as is minus damage. But restricting avatar, reck, and or banner from stackin together?
We have considered it. It takes a lot of unfun management to cycle your cooldowns though. Why not just cut 1 and recude CDs? (Source)So cycling cooldowns isn't fun and popping them together isn't fun. Why even have multiple cooldowns like this?
Popping them together is fun. It just risks too much burst in PvP. (Source)

With the PvP healing change, is there a chance Second Wind will be reverted to 3%? Pretty please?
We've talked about doing that and nerfing Dstance instead. Might try both and see what feels better. (Source)

I think he means that outside of CS, it is better to have dead GCDs and pool rage(for HS spam in CS) than use WS.
Could make CS not affect HS, but then a lot of warriors have some relearning to do. (Source)I think the solution is in changing WS, not in breaking something that works well (heroic strike).
But what would you change WS to? Ultimately it's a priority question of whether it beats HS, RB etc. (Source)I thought the intent was to just beat HS (like Slam does) except in rage bleed-offs? Does it not accomplish that?
That is the intent, but it sounds like Fury just ignores the BS proc often, which is unfortunate. (Source)It is low dmg and awkward to use. Making it proc a stronger free WS might be too similar to new Overpower though.
WS is always going to be low priority compared to all else but we can try to make Bloodsurge worth using. (Source)

Make the bloodsurge proc give WS a .5s GCD so you can get all 3 in one GCD and squeez it in there. Nerf it's damage.
The game can't handle GCDs that low very well. Lag would be a killer. (Source)

PvE Devs have spent more time defending this poor choice and not fixing it.
Well, yeah, why wouldn't we defend a decision that we are unlikely to change? (Source) pve dungeons for rep to get pve gear makes sense your statement about dungeons for pvp gear makes you look stupid.
The point was dungeons offer epics and valor. Why do they also need to offer additional bonuses? They are rewarding already. (Source)

if 5.2 has no new 5-mans but new PvP honor gear, won`t it be the only consistent gearing for pve players too?
You can use Honor gear. You can also run 5.0 LFR or earn valor to purchase items. (Source)

Hey are the increased T14LFR droprates in 5.2 affecting elder charms' rates? What about normal/heroic T14?
Elder charms: yes, for LFR. For normal and heroic, probably not, but that isn't set in stone. (Source)

Why are there such large ilevel gaps between tiers? Wouldn't smaller gaps make catching up easier?
Raid balance works best when skilled groups can go in with lower ilevels and the rest of us can slowly improve our gear. (Source)

Wait... Your current, throw patches at us like candy... is exactly against this mentality.
Subtle difference: ToC invalidated Ulduar very quickly. We hope the 5.2 raid doesn't do that. You can keep running 5.0. (Source)But it will though. The desire for better loot will invalidate previous content. Has been like that since Wrath.
Why wasn't it like that before Wrath? (Source)Because there was no catch-up system. But u said that we can catch-up LFR 5.2. in LFR 5.0. No reason for N/H
So we'll shoot for a catch up mechanism that isn't as brutal as SSC->BT but not as fast as Ulduar->ToC. (Source)

I disagree, the LFR system is trying to get the game to decide loot drops, not the players.
Yes, that's the goal. It is sad to lose the ability to be kind but worth it to avoid loot drama among strangers. (Source)

in regards to the random LFR loot, ever thought of giving a "pass" on loot so that the system chooses the next player?
As soon as we do that, players are going to start begging you to pass because of course they deserve an item more than you. (Source)

Will you stop trying to make us like dungeons/raiding with strangers, when that isn't remotely the draw, anytime soon?
I think they will ALWAYS be more fun with friends. Your friends aren't always online or willing to go with you though. (Source)

Control factor. Prev system rewarded social grps rolling as team, and solos wrnt hindered. Now it's always same loot % as solo
You mean a social LFR could feed gear to one player to gear them up faster? (Source)

PvPfriend of mine just asked me about putting back vengeance in pvp. would that be possible? not the same way but an amount?
Pretty unlikely TBH. Tanks already have good damage reduction and control in PvP. They don't need punishing DPS as well. (Source)

Do you balance the game for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, bgs or what?
We try for everything, but place the most emphasis on 3v3 and BGs. (Source)

I told friends about Cata. MoP I preface with "you're not viable until your 4th week of PVP cuz no pvp weapon"
Did you have Honor weapons in Cataclysm? (Source)

Have you considered making all loss of control share the same DR? It may reduce comp restrictions & cc balance problems.
Talked about this some last week or so. The downside is it might take away some of the skill and knowledge PvP players like. (Source)

If it was decided to make WoW only based around PvP balance and absolutely nothing else, would pets still be included?
Great question. I'm not sure. Would depend on if classes felt different enough without them. (Source)

CharacterAnd wasn't it one of the main slogans of MOP - free us from being locked on mains only?
You're asking more (I assume) to be able to play main and all alts without having to play a lot more than you did in Cataclysm? (Source)
We didn't want to prevent you from switching mains because you'd lose an achievement. (Source)

That wont hurt game just because you'll still have to grind rep at least once.
Can't you make the same argument about leveling up or even earning Valor? The basic question is what % faster should an alt take? (Source)

The problem is the pace that players used to play to be able to keep up is not even close to current requirement
Used to from when? Cataclysm didn't ask players to play much... and they didn't. (Source)

Thank god for no upgradeable gear in 5.2. Hope it stays out forever.
I tried to be careful to say that was the plan at the moment. It isn't set in stone. (Source)

If you allow players to transmog outside of weapon-type, doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of weapon-type to begin with?
What is the purpose of weapon type these days? There used to be warrior talents etc. (Source)

Sites like noxxic, EJ, IV and you'll see the benefit we TC's bring. Look at the wow forums, what benefits do the whiners bring
Humor me. How does theorycrafting make the game more fun (excluding the people who enjoy geeking out on the numbers)? (Source)Because its otherwise not possible to determine how to properly gear up -> play at the limit.
If we thought that was extremely important, then we (the devs) could just tell you and not make you figure it out. (Source)

So upgrading items is just a waste of time and effort. What is the point of it if it doesnt help in new raid even?
I would think having higher ilevel would help a lot in the new content and will compete for a time with newer gear. (Source)still no answer if VP will be reset/downgraded like in the past on 5.2's release?
I don't believe we have answered that yet. (Source)

What are your thoughts on balancing 25m vs 10m healing? Seems like the biggest challenge among the 3 class roles.
In brief, it's hard to overheal in 25, which makes AE spamming feasible, which means healers can use fewer buttons. (Source)

If you're spending valor on upgrading old items instead of buying new items you're probably doing it wrong.
Right and we don't want it to be a complex math / probability problem about whether upgrading or buying is better. (Source)So we ARE getting catch-up gear via VP in 5.2 (was under the impression LFR was the only route we got to catch up)
Planning on new valor gear. Some (not all) may require reps. LFR is another avenue, but also gated. Catch up - yes. Instant - no. (Source)

You aren't happy with how it's playing out atm? Is it because players are feeling pressure to VP cap to min/max?
No, it's really that having valor for upgrade and valor for gear at the same time creates stressful decisions. (Source)

Why is every design decision in MoP designed to make alts take more and more time to play? lvling rep gearing all anti-alt.
In fact, many players made alts at the end of Cat because they were bored. Alts are cool, but shouldn't be mandatory to have fun. (Source)
That isn't actually why those decisions were made. They were made so that a player with one character doesn't get bored. (Source)

Are you content with people going from 4pc tX to 4pc tY? Rather than using tY at 2pc.
You give up a lot of stat points to use an old set bonus (waiting until 4 like you said). (Source)

At last BlizzCon someone asked about tabards and bank space consumption. Anything being done there? I realize it's a big task.
We recognize the problem and agree we made it worse by adding so many toys. We have some ideas, but nothing to announce yet. (Source)

I'm playing much less now with boring dailies and always-out-of-reach valor cap. Feels pointless, not fun.
What if you just earned as much valor as you felt like and didn't target the cap. What if the cap was 20,000? (Source)

Some of us like not spending every spare moment just to keep up. Is it really drop in subs that motivates design?
It's similar to how we offer many difficulty levels in raids now. We have diverse players and try to support as many as we can. (Source)

The only problem is that there are players who can only play 2-3 days a week - for us, catching up = impossible.
How many weeks of playing 2-3 days is reasonable to spend on catch up? (Source)

Rested Bonus applying to VP seems like a reasonable compromise. Could replace valor of ancients
We've considered that (and rep) but the game has no concept ATM of rest for anything beyond XP. (Source)

UI / AddonsAs an addon dev, im not against you protecting functions, but you need to give a way to interact with it. "Req. User Input"
That's usually what we get around to doing. It just takes code time, which is time we can't spend on other features or bugs. (Source)

Dear GC, can you please make it so that Auto-loot is on by default. I have to change it every time I make a character.
Not crazy about default, but we could save the variable per account instead of character perhaps. (Source)

have you thought about adding some sort of mouseover heal setting, not just macroing everything?
Yes, we've considered it as an option, since it's a popular one. (Source)

I dont want to automate anything! MANY people cant change talents w/o freq reloading due to false addon errors!
We are going to *try* in 5.2 to isolate the protection more so that innocent mods don't stumble into it as frequently. (Source)In addition to that, some more helpful debug info would really nice (e.g. stack traces of where the taint occurred)
Talked about this some with the UI team today and they're going to try some things. (Source)Maybe the UI team should have dealt with UI instead of pokewow?
Add-on authors always want access to more stuff and more power. We try to help them out as we can. WoW's UI is our main focus. (Source)

Are there any plans to add some UI that allows you to track which +Rep Commendations you've already purchased?
Yes. 5.2 has such a feature. (Source)

They aren't false errors. We understand that the mods may not always realize what they did to get the taint. (Source)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Pros vs Joes Contest
Our friends over at FPSGeneral are holding a contest that will give you a chance to play against some professional gamers and win a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Care Package Special Edition or a Black Ops 2 Season Pass. See the full post for more details.

Dark Legacy Comics #175
We are going back to 2009 to revisit this old Lunar Festival comic!

You finally answer a question about demon hunters, and you answer it with the most debated question on the forum for almost 8 years concerning demon hunters? You could have said NO. But you didn't, so the argument goes on.

Not saying NO gives us hope. Hope leads to suffering, Suffering leads to substance abuse and human trafficking on the black market.

I like how Ghostcrawler jokingly mentioned a 20,000 valor cap, IMO for me if the weekly cap was like 5K (or 20K, doesn't matter) I'd actually do activities that give valor more often so I could buy that piece of gear that I'm missing rather than waiting 3 weeks to a month, at this point I do nothing that gives valor except LFR and I often leave before the last boss anyway

I'm done with dailies, got them all exalted but I'd do every single one of them everyday if the cap was 5k, I do zero dungeons but I'd do them if the cap was 5k...

I see the point for a cap, slow people down in a subscription based game but

I like how Ghostcrawler jokingly mentioned a 20,000 valor cap, IMO for me if the weekly cap was like 5K (or 20K, doesn't matter) I'd actually do activities that give valor more often so I could buy that piece of gear that I'm missing rather than waiting 3 weeks to a month, at this point I do nothing that gives valor except LFR and I often leave before the last boss anyway

I'm done with dailies, got them all exalted but I'd do every single one of them everyday if the cap was 5k, I do zero dungeons but I'd do them if the cap was 5k...

I see the point for a cap, slow people down in a subscription based game but

No, it's not to slow people down in a subscription based game. It's because (as another blue mentioned a couple weeks ago), people will always feel obligated to reach a cap. Setting the cap to 5k or 20k would just cause more complaints because too many players would feel like they have to cap. Setting it to say, 500, would cause complaints because it'd take more than 3-4 weeks to get a piece with valor. I'm not saying 1000 is optimal, but it's probably the best point balancing complaints between delay and activity.